July 9-19th 2013, Bull Trout Lake, Summer Ride (Part 2)

Usually summer ride starts at Baumgartner, and yes we did go there but our group was very small, only 5 rigs and 9 people.  It was really a pre-summer ride! The “Real Summer Ride” was set to start on July 13th and eventually had 22 rigs, 41 people including 6 kids under 18, 9 dogs and 5 cats.  We had folks from California, New Mexico, Idaho, Washington, Utah, and Colorado.   It’s like a really big family reunion, except we all like each other and have lots in common.

 Some of the ladies

 We packed them in

Finding shade where ever we could

When we broke camp at Baumgartner, Cindy, Doc and Bob headed straight to Bull Trout through Sun Valley and Galena Pass to try to get our favorite spot by the pond.  The pond is a shallow catch basin for spring runoff that is about 4 feet deep in the center when we get there in July.  By the fall it will pretty much be dry, with maybe a small stream running through it.  But in the summer, it’s a great place to camp.  The water is warm, it’s shallow enough for the kids to swim in and the dogs in the group just love it.

 Bull Trout Pond

Bailey by the shore...

 

Riding began on Wednesday before the whole gang arrived. I took my DRZ, Cindy was on her BMW GS 700F and Diane was on her Suzuki DR 200 and we took a quick ride over to Stanley ID.  We headed out on Highway 21, but quickly jumped on to dirt on the Cape Horn Road. We paralleled the highway for a bit, then went north onto the Valley Creek Road. At the creek crossing we decided to take a pass and scooted out onto the highway again. At Forest Rd 653 we took a left back on to dirt and connected with the Nip and Tuck Road which takes us to Lower Stanley.  From there it is a quick mile and a half into Stanley.  We checked the Post Office to see if my mail had arrived (it had not) and picked up a couple of things at the market before heading back the way we had come.  It was 62 miles, and a beautiful to be out riding. 

Stanley Idaho

The boys went out riding every day, but not all the trails have been cleaned lately, and one of our trails had been closed due to legal action filed in 2008.  Yes, our legal system at its finest. Although this kind of action we want to take as long as possible, as they have closed the trail to motorized use. And right after the Forest Service spent a bunch of money rebuilding it recently. The boys also loaded up bikes into trucks and hauled them to Yankee Fork (which is farther north east of where we were) to ride.

The next time I road was Saturday. Most of the ladies had arrived by then and we decided to take a trail ride down Warm Springs trail and visit the hot springs at Grand Jean. Michele, Deb, Lisa, Lindsey, Kelly and I started out with Ed as our minder. (Always nice to have at least 1 guy on a trail ride to fix flat tires and stuff). Unfortunately I only made it about 3.5 miles.  I was leading, having a great time swooping through the trees.  We had just got on to a side hill trail when I slammed into a rock with my foot peg and sheered it right off. I was very lucky as I was standing up, with weight on that peg.  I could have pulverized that foot, but lucky for me it was a perfect height to catch on the bottom of the peg. I came to a stop, surprised to find the peg missing but the break lever still intact.  Go figure…  Once the rest of the group caught up, Ed helped me turn my bike around and rode out to the road with me so I could get back to camp.  The rest of the group had a great ride, but I was just happy to still have a right foot!!

 

On Sunday I led the Ladies (plus 2) through Bear Valley to the Whitehawk Lookout.  Cindy, Michele, Deb, Lisa, Kelly, Lindsey, Maria, Diane, Bob, Ed and I started out on Highway 21 for 3 miles before we picked up the dirt road, the Bear Valley Rd to the Fir Creek Campground. After a quick rest stop we got back on the Bear Valley Rd and went through Bruce Meadow taking the south fork (FS Rd 582). 

Bruce Meadows

 The route follows the meandering Bear Valley Creek over to the bottom of Whitehawk Mountain. 

 

The signs describe the history of this valley including the mining that was done.  You’d never know it now. They did an outrageous job of returning it to a natural state. 

We went up to the top to see the lookout for lunch and the view. 

Lunch at the top, at Whitehawk Lookout

 

From there you can see into Bear Valley and over to the Deadwood Reservoir.

 Bear Valley

Deadwood Reservoir

After lunch we backtracked to FS Rd 563 so we could go north to FS Rd 579-Bear Valley Rd. This completed our circle, so we headed back to camp the way we had come for a 71 mile ride.

 

Monday was a rainy day and most of us decided not to ride.  Instead we went to Stanley in the trucks.  I managed to pick up our mail which finally arrived at the Post Office, and then headed east toward the ghost town of Custer, located on the Yankee Fork River.  We stopped at the Sunbeam Dam to check out the history and the view.
 

Sunbeam Dam, located at the mouth of the Yankee Fork roughly 13 miles north on Highway 75 from Stanley, Idaho, is an old dam on the Upper Salmon River that was partially dynamited to allow for fish passage. A large pullout off the highway gave us a place to stop and gaze down at the odd site of the river making its way through the demolished section of the dam.

The dam and the power plant were constructed in May of 1910. Power from the plant was utilized by the Sunbeam Consolidated Gold Mines Company at their mine and mill located 13 miles up the Yankee Fork at Jordan Creek. It didn’t last long, just 11 months, before the company realized this was an upside-down venture and the power plant and dam were sold at a Sheriff’s Auction in April of 1911.  From there we headed north on the Yankee Fork Road, past the sparse remains of Bonanza.  Bonanza came to life in 1876 following the discovery of what became known as the General Custer Mine. The discovery was made on the 17th of August of that year and was the mother lode of Yankee Fork, a name already given to the general area.  A huge mill was constructed a short distance north of the mine which made it necessary for another business and residence center; which became Custer.

This town is now partially restored as a museum, with a self-guided walking tour.  We would have looked at more of the home sites, but the sky kept opening up and raining on us, so we headed down to the Yankee Fork Dredge.

The dredge ran from 1940 to 1952 stopping once from late 1942 until early 1946 for WWII and then again in 1947 when Snake River Mining Co (subsidiary of Silas Mason) decided they were not making enough money and put it up for sale.  In 1949 J.R. Simplot and a partner in mining, Fred Baumhoff, bought the dredge for $75,000 and started it up again in April of 1950.  In 1952 Simplot ran out of original claim so leased a small section from the Morrisons; when they completed that section they shut the dredge off and walked away.  Later in 1953 Morrison ask them to remove the dredge, or pay rent as the dredge still sat on Morrison's claim, and so Simplot's men started it up and dug themselves to the current position where it has sat ever since. The Yankee Fork Gold Dredge is one of the best preserved and presented dredges in the lower 48 states.  It was donated to the U.S. Forest Service by J.R. Simplot in 1966, and in 1980 the Yankee Fork Gold Dredge Association began providing guided tours to the public. Most of our group decided to tour the dredge, but I have seen in many times and opted to sit outside and enjoy the ever changing weather.

On Tuesday the group decided to take some of non-trail riders (including me) over to ride the Deadwood Ridge trail. A small group decided to take trail the whole way and headed down the Warm Springs trail.  I went with the other group, the one that loaded our bikes into trucks and trailers and drove to the trail head.
 

The other group was a little late, but it all worked out. Once we were together we left on the Julie Creek single track trail.

It winds around and rides a ridge back up to the Deadwood Ridge single track trail.

 

We turned left and headed north on it until we got to the Whitehawk Basin trail.  This is located below the lookout we were at a few days earlier, and is a combination of road, ATV trail and single track trail.  This took us over to the Deadwood River and eventually to the dam.  

The dam was releasing a ton of water, the spray felt great as it was really hot out!!!

After lunch at the dam we came across a fire fighting helicopter that was doing a crew change, so we watched that for a while.

 Fire fighting helo

 Picking up the bucket

Headed out for a load of water

 

 A fire had been started by lightning near our camp and they were fighting it. At this point we turned around and headed home via the same route. I don’t ride as much single track as I used to so it was a lot of fun to get out and zoom around the trails again.

Our group began to break up on Friday, and after saying good bye to some of our friends, Raydonia, Michele, Cindy, Bob and I took a ride back out to Bear Valley, this time turning on the Dagger Falls Rd.  This road is a 400’ wide corridor through the Frank Church Wilderness and is used to get rafters and their equipment out to the put-in on the Middle Fork Salmon River.  From this launch spot it is a 6 day float through the wilderness to the take out point. It is a beautiful road with many wild flowers and this year I saw an eagle rise from the ground up to tree top level and take flight!  He was huge!

Dagger Falls

Our first stop was Dagger Falls. The water was pretty low, but the falls are still spectacular. From there it is just a short hop down the road to the put in.  Usually it is a mad house of activity. 

 This is what it usually looks like at the put-in...

Not so much this year. 

Low water and last year’s forest fires resulted in lower requests for permits.  From here we went back to Bear Valley road.  We split into groups, Michele’s bike wasn’t running right so she and Raydonia headed back to camp, Bob went the direct route to Whitehawk Look Out (where he could get cell service and make phone calls) and Cindy and I continued around the loop the opposite way from earlier in the week.  We all enjoyed our rides.
This was the final ride in this area for us as we were leaving this group and heading to Wyoming to ride with a different group of friends. Some of these folks would also go, but not all of them.  We left on Saturday, along with Bob and took a leisurely drive to Thayne Wyoming.  We stopped to grocery shop and then spent the night in a RV park in Pocetello which had a Laundromat. You have to take travel days to do these chores, otherwise you might have to give up a day of riding, and wouldn’t that be a shame!!!